. >>> senator, i served with jack kennedy. i knew jack kennedy. jack kennedy was a friend of mine. senator, you're no jack kennedy. >> part of why the stakes feel so high tonight is that incumbent presidents almost always lose to the candidate challenging them in their first debate. the exception to that is bill clinton beating dole in their first debate in '96. other than that every time the first debate has been a killer for the incokucumbent president. president carter lost to ronald reagan, president reagan lost his first debate to robert mondale. president bush lost his first debate to bill clinton and ross perot. next president bush lost his first debate to john kerry. so when president obama lost his first debate last week to his challenger, mitt romney, that outcome was totally in keeping with the sad, sad incumbent president tradition of getting creamed in their first debate. but what hat means for tonight is that the democrats are looking for a solid performance to try to stop the republican momentum, to try to quash the poll imbalance that romney and ryan have been enjoy